Sprint Increases Its LTE Footprint

Sprint today announced the availability of LTE 4G in a handful of new markets. Consumers in Lawrence, Topeka, and Wichita, Kans.; Waukegan-Lake County, Ill.; and Barnstable-Hyannis/Mid-Cape, Mass. now have access to Sprint's LTE network. In addition to the new LTE markets, Sprint said that it has enhanced its 3G CDMA network in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. Customers using 3G devices in those cities should see improved network performance. Sprint remains on target to offer LTE in 100 markets by the end of the year.

Never even heard of half these places. Lawrence Kansas? Waukegan-Lake County? Barnstable-Hyannis/Mid-Cape? Why the hell is Sprint deploying LTE in places that people never even heard of? It seems Sprint is deploying in areas that arent even their network, and are on affiliate networks first, or at least places that never even had 3G and were still running 1xRTT. If Sprint is saying they are improving 3G network performance in the nations three largest cities, I hope that means, capacity capacity capacity, backhaul backhaul backhaul and not "oh we just deployed 850ESMR so ya'll be good to go" - cause MOST customers, something like 95% of them still dont have 850ESMR capable phones to experience what Sprint has notoriously called "improved n...(continues)

rwalford79 said:Never even heard of half these places. Lawrence Kansas? Waukegan-Lake County? Barnstable-Hyannis/Mid-Cape? Why the hell is Sprint deploying LTE in places that people never even heard of?

They're upgrading capacity and adding backhaul. The 850ESMR band wont be launched for the majority of markets til beginning of next year due its still in use for IDEN, excpet a few markets will have access to it by end of this year. As what phones are...(continues)

Just because Sprint is expanding into rural areas before big cities, doubt hate. I think its a good move to move as much people off of the 1x network and onto the 4G/3G network. AT&T and Verizon have a lot of 2g only areas and the other day I was traveling and found myself on AT&T's GPRS network. I hope Sprint keeps pushing LTE into rural areas.